Friday, July 23, 2010

One of Many

One of the best things I love about living on this particular Air Force base is this dirt road. Maybe you're wondering what's so wonderful about this dirt road over other dirt roads.

I'll tell you. I'll show you. This dirt road is one section of the bike route that serpentines around base. Most of the route is two lane wide paved concrete. It is right at three miles long and meanders past the pool, tennis courts, housing, football field and track, and one open field after another. Despite being a bit hard on the knees, this path is what makes me happy on base. I love to run and I can do that here.

Every morning minus one, I have dragged my sleepy self out of bed and directly into running clothes. The kids always wake up before me so it's no struggle to get them dressed and ready to go. Phoebe rides in the jogging stroller while Paige and Josh ride their bikes. Three sets of tennis shoes and one bottle of water later and we're out the door waking our bodies and minds with the beauty that is abundant here.

The dirt road is fun because it has nothing to see but nature for about 3/4 of a mile. It's baby jackrabbit season around here and dang it if I can't catch one on camera, but they are ca-yute!

We also may see a road runner, snake, various birds, deer, and many different types of plants and flowers. You have to watch what you pick though because some of the plants may bite back!

Paige and I are partial to the Indian Blanket wildflower. They grow shorter but just as vibrant here in the desert.

Power lines are ugly aren't they? Oh, well. When you're running care free on the road you don't even notice they're there.

It's obviously been very wet around here. When Hurricane whatever-it-was-named dumped torrential rain on the area, the greenery popped up like a jack-in-the-box. We were shocked on the drive down how green everything is. Normally in the middle of a hot, hot summer most things are baked brown under the hot, hot sun.

I love the brown though. What most people see as drab and bland, I see as a neutral backdrop to the other beauty that is usually overshadowed by all of that green.

Have you ever seen a field of purple sage in bloom? When the grass is brown the silver leaves of the sage shimmer like, well, silver while the purple blooms turn the landscape into a crayon farm. When it's too green it's hard to see those details.

These wild sunflowers love the rain. There are so many of these plants growing now that you can't see the hundreds and hundreds of prickly pear cactus that are hiding in their stems.

I found this redheaded baby specimen on a recent walk down the path. She was adorable and was proudly carrying her favorite baby doll, "Baby".

Why, here's another redhead! This one is older, I can tell, because she's taller and has been around long enough to start blooming.

This must be the male version of the redhead baby specimen. I can tell because he's always messing with his stuff. Boys.

Oh, and the male redhead leaves tracks like this. Is there a spider man somewhere around here?

I said spider, not grasshopper. But "Hi", anyway. Whatchoo up to on a great summer morning?